April's Easter times five
by another.maggie
Summary: Easter is April's favorite holiday. Always. Rating is due to hinted action.


**A/N: I just wrote this in half an hour while watching Deadpool so it probably isn't perfect, but I think especially today we should be granted a glimpse into the life of Japriet ;) Also: happy Easter!**

* * *

 **I - 2014**

On Easter Sunday April Kepner woke up to the feeling she passed out to the night before: her husband's lips on her body.

"Mmmm... morning", she murmured with a small smile, her eyes still closed.

"Morning, beautiful", he replied, his breath hot against her neck.

April sighed. This time last year she'd spent her favorite holiday squeezing in some extra hours at work so she would definitely pass her boards the second time around. If it hadn't been for her sister calling she might have missed the season completely. Eventually, once her mentor let her go she went to the late service at city church with all the other people who didn't make it, or rather, didn't bother to make it to the early service as they didn't have anybody to go easter egg hunting with later.

Compared side by side this year was by far winning.

For one, she wasn't alone and nor would she ever be. She was married, to the man of her dreams, thank you very much. He might have not been everything she'd put down in her first diary when she was nine but close enough. And he'd agreed to not only drive her to service and pick her up after, no, he'd agreed to go to service with her, although he believed in God as much as she believed in the Easter bunny. He wasn't perfect. He was her perfect.

She opened her eyes, happy to find the sun dimmed out by the blinds. They'd had a long night last night. They still had those a lot, even after almost a whole year of marriage.

"This is our first year of Easter as married people", she announced against air. Their heads weren't leveled at the moment.

"Uh-huh", he murmured against her stomach.

There was so much more that she wanted to say but with where he was going talking was becoming more difficult to her.

"Jackson", she said instead, stretching each syllable. Her hands found their way to his head, tangling them in his hair. Her legs moved. Her eyes flew up to the ceiling and sideways and then they landed on the clock.

"It's almost nine", she gasped for different reasons than one might imagine. "We'll miss service!"

Somehow this statement didn't motivate Jackson to stop his motions. Not at all.

"Really?", he asked the place beneath her bellybutton feigning interest.

"Uh-huh..." April went back to closing her eyes. The feeling was too much without adding a visual to it.

"I guess I'll stop then..."

Her eyes flew open and met his. Someone would rise again next year, too.

"Don't you dare."

* * *

 **II - 2014**

"April?"

She lifted her eyes onto the pictures of hills hanging right next to her husband who stood there in all his glory and underwear. Her eyes blinked.

"What are you doing?", he asked. "It's four in the morning."

She looked at her hands and the knife and the cut carrots. Next to those: eggs, blown out, colored, now drying. Next to those: Easter baskets, in different colors, woven, three. She looked back up at her husband, shrugged.

"April..." His voice sounded strained, exhausted from the past few weeks. He walked over to her in the darkness of the dimly lit room. She didn't ask him to join her. She never did. Not recently.

"I've gotta get them ready for Easter", she explained. As if that was a satisfying explanation.

He sunk down on a barstool. He hated this place. He hated it more now as he watched his wife prepare for a day they surely wouldn't celebrate. But he'd try to stay positive. This was her favorite holiday after all.

"So you do wanna go to service today?"

She shook her head violently. "No. No, I don't."

"Are you sure? It's your favorite holiday, you said you hated to miss-"

"I don't want to go", she repeated more urgently. She hadn't been to church since February.

"Okay", he said holding up his hands in what he hoped to be a placatory gesture. "Okay. We won't go then."

She raised an eyebrow, stilling her carrot cutting movements. "You wouldn't have gone anyway."

He was taken aback by her accusation, hurt even. He'd offered to take her to church for weeks. "That's not true. I told you I'd-"

"You wouldn't want to sit at home every Sunday while your entire family's at church", she told him matter-of-factly.

"April." He reached out and put his hand over hers on the knife she was still holding. She wouldn't hurt him. Not physically anyway. "You are my family."

Her eyes met his then, hazel meeting green, and she shook her head. "No, not just me... I'm not."

* * *

 **III - 2015**

"Hey, Jackson." April smiled brightly as her husband picked up the phone. She'd wanted to talk to him all day.

The first thing she noticed was his lab coat. He was working today. That wasn't strange. She was working, too, and it wasn't even his favorite holiday. He wouldn't take a day off. Why would he?

"Hey", he replied with a small smile on his lips. It didn't match up to the level of hers, not at all. "How are you doing?"

"I'm great", she said and immediately began to spill all the details of her stay. She never asked him how he was doing. It wasn't his favorite holiday after all.

* * *

 **IV - 2016**

She found it in her locker. A single colored egg. She never knew who left it for her.

Their flat was empty when she got there. He wasn't coming home. Not even for her favorite holiday.

* * *

 **V – 2017**

"One orange juice, one apple juice and three waffles, please."

"With cream?", the waitress asked in a voice that let on she was anything but happy to be working on Easter Sunday.

Today, April couldn't care less. She couldn't care less about the waitress not being able to care less about having customers. She couldn't care less about the couple two tables further whispering about the fact that she was nursing her daughter in a public space like this. She couldn't care less.

Because today was April's favorite holiday and she was getting to spend it with her favorite people. Her daughter Harriet and her ex-husband-again-husband-husband Jackson.

Harriet, her little miracle, who was eleven months old as of today and had adorably slept through the whole service at church tomorrow.

Jackson, her big miracle, who was 34 years old as of today and with great willpower had managed to stay awake for some of the service.

April was with the two people she loved the most, on her favorite holiday, in a chabby highway diner to get the waffles she'd promised Jackson years ago as a reward for him when he attended service with her, with their family.

She couldn't care less about the unhappy waitress, or the extra calories.

"Two with cream, please."


End file.
